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I m going to throw a cena for about 9-10 people in a month or so and am trying to pull together a great menu. I d love to hear what dishes others have served

Message 1 of 5
, Feb 14, 2009

I'm going to throw a cena for about 9-10 people in a month or so and
am trying to pull together a great menu. I'd love to hear what dishes
others have served successfully. I am hoping to primarily serve from
Apicius but if there are other tastes and treats from other Roman
sources, I'd be open to ideas!

Thanks in advance!

RM

I suggest the following: Gustatio: Apic.3,7: Pepones et Melones (if you get some in this season ...) or Apic.7,19,3: In Ovis Apalis and Apic.4,5,4: Gustum de

Message 2 of 5
, Feb 14, 2009

I suggest the following:

Gustatio:
Apic.3,7: Pepones et Melones (if you get some in this season ...)
or
Apic.7,19,3: In Ovis Apalis
and
Apic.4,5,4: Gustum de Praecoquiis

I'm going to throw a cena for about 9-10 people in a month or so and
am trying to pull together a great menu. I'd love to hear what dishes
others have served successfully. I am hoping to primarily serve from
Apicius but if there are other tastes and treats from other Roman
sources, I'd be open to ideas!

Thanks in advance!

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

lilinah@earthlink.net

... I prepared 26 dishes for close to 100 (well, not all by myself, i had help :-), many from Apicius. Promulsis / Gustatio [Hors d Oeuvres / Appetizers] * -

Message 3 of 5
, Feb 14, 2009

Crystal wrote:

> I'm going to throw a cena for about 9-10 people in a month or so and
> am trying to pull together a great menu. I'd love to hear what dishes
> others have served successfully. I am hoping to primarily serve from
> Apicius but if there are other tastes and treats from other Roman
> sources, I'd be open to ideas!

I prepared 26 dishes for close to 100 (well, not all by myself, i had help :-), many from Apicius.

A few notes:
We served granita, homemade ice/sherbet (no dairy) between two courses, but this is not historically accurate. I did it because it was very hot - Sept. is usually our hottest month - and the hall has no air-conditioning.

Normally the Conditum Paradoxi Compositio is made with wine. While the organization i cooked for allows us to buy wine for cooking, we cannot buy wine to be used as a beverage (legal issue of potentially serving a minor).

I served the almond paste "peach pits" in sugar plate chariots because i wanted something unusual as part of the service, as in the feast of Trimalchius, in "The Satyricon" of Petronius. They are, however, 16th century Spanish.

maybe the list Gellius provided about luxury food could be helpful: at least tunny, codfish, oysters, cockles, swordfish, pike, nuts and dates are available and could be prepared with recipes from Apicius.

Yours,

Rainer

------------------
3 As for the verses themselves, he who has leisure may find and read them in the book which I have mentioned. 4 So far as my memory goes, these are the varieties and names of the foods surpassing all others, which a bottomless gullet has hunted out and which Varro has assailed in his satire, with the places where they are found: 5 a peacock from Samos, a woodcock from Phrygia, cranes of Media, p67a kid from Ambracia, a young tunny from Chalcedon, a lamprey from Tartessus, codfish from Pessinus, oysters from Tarentum, cockles from Sicily, a swordfish from Rhodes,88 pike from Cilicia, nuts from Thasos, dates from Egypt, acorns from Spain.